By Alan M. Petrillo
With fire departments trying to cram as much equipment on their pumpers as possible, manufacturers have responded by shrinking pump panels and relocating pumps and discharges on fire apparatus to give firefighters the room they want and need on their vehicles.
A large part of the efforts by apparatus and pump manufacturers has been to shrink pump panels and their associated equipment to free up space for other uses.
Saving and Creating Space
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1 This Spotsylvania (VA) Fire Department PUC pumper made by Pierce Manufacturing features a pump panel on the driver’s side that is slim and has clear compartmentation on the officer’s side. (Photo courtesy of Pierce Manufacturing.) |
John Schultz, director of pumper and custom chassis products for Pierce Manufacturing Inc., says Pierce’s PUC product line has continued in popularity, likely because of the slim size of the pump house and panel area. “The pump is located between the frame rails, which allows crosslays to come down from their historically high location on top of the pump house,” Schultz says. “The 31-inch-wide PUC pump panel is on the driver’s side only, allowing additional compartmentation on the officer’s side and saving wheelbase on the vehicle. Because of this, we are able to replace the officer’s side panel with a full-height-and-depth compartment.”
On the traditional custom pumpers that Pierce builds, Schultz notes that Pierce is achieving pump panel savings by using end suction pumps over traditional full body midship pumps. “The intake and discharge manifolding is typically cast by the OEM body building, which allows for a unique configuration of intake manifolding,” Schultz says. “The reconfiguration saves space by being more compact, as is shown in our FXP entry-level commercial pumper with a 45-inch-wide pump panel.”
Some departments are opting for smaller hydraulically-driven pumps packed in or underneath a transverse compartment or the pump compartment, Schultz says. “Typically we see them on aerials where the pump would be 250 to 300 gallons per minute (gpm) and might feed a front bumper crosslay or other discharges,” he adds. “The small pump panel controls would be under the transverse compartment, tucked away. The San Diego (CA) Fire Department has used that type of pump with a 10-inch-wide pump panel and electric valve controllers and gauges for quite a while now.”
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2 E-ONE offers its eMAX pump panel on both side-mount and top-mount (shown) pumpers, aerials, and tankers. The top-mount version gains two large compartments on each side and a very narrow pump module. (Photo courtesy of E-ONE.) |
Grady North, product manager for E-ONE, says his company’s eMAX pumper has become a very popular option among fire departments, so much so that E-ONE expanded the product to include aerials and tankers